Hazrat Inayat Khan continues with his talk about the spiritual journey, begun here. In this portion he describes the process of manifestation, or in other words, how it is that we have come to be where we are, from which it becomes easier to understand what the return journey entails.
In the first step of manifestation, there is consciousness only. He is conscious, but He does not know, “What am I? Where am I? What is my work?” Then by the activity, consciousness becomes sound. Here, before me, there is nothing, but if I wave my hand, vibrations and sound come. This shows that all comes from activity. As the activity increases, light comes. Then He thinks that He is sound and light. Because He has no body, He recognizes Himself as that of which He is conscious. A little child recognizes himself as his physical existence, because he sees his hands, his body.
The light forms the ideas, because it is the property of light to divide. Variety is the property of light. All activities are made by one activity, just as in a watch all the wheels are made to go by one wheel. So all our activities are made to go by one, by the breath. The breath makes all go, and when that ceases all the activities cease. Every cause has a cause behind it. All causes originate from One Cause, call it the First Cause if you will not call it God. Every soul is a ray of the Consciousness.
In this way the Consciousness, by many stages, about which if I were to speak, I should speak for many hours, through many planes, by many experiences, by increase, by reduction, becomes man. So the life goes through many planes, through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. In man the return journey begins. In man the manifestation is perfected. Man is the seed of God. Why is it never said in any scripture that a cat or a dog may be the son of God? Why is it said only that man is the son of God? Because in man are all the attributes of God. What is the matter with him [i.e. what is wrong with him] is only that he is deluded. He sees this physical world and he thinks, I am this. It seems so solid, so real.
To be conscious of that state where we are All is the return journey. It has six planes, and the starting-point, that makes seven. For one it may take thousands of years and more, for another it may take one instant. That depends upon the traveller, upon his courage, endurance, energy, and chiefly upon his confidence. Everything in the world has been done by “I can” and all our lacks come from “I cannot.” With what did Alexander, who is still called the Great, conquer so many countries? With “I can.” This whole world has been manifested with “I can.”
The return journey is made through the same planes as the way toward manifestation. Man is the seed of God. From man he must become God, by the thought of God, by the repetition of the name of God. Shams-i-Tabriz says, “Say ‘God, God, God,’ and God you will become. And again I say, You will become God.” His unreal life has become real to man. When he attains to the consciousness, when he reaches the goal, this life becomes unreal to him, and that becomes his real life, his true life, as it is.
Whatever we do, whether we live as a saint, whether we make a sacrifice, it is for our own happiness that we do it. And if someone wishes only for peace, it is because his happiness lies in peace. The world was made for the happiness of the Creator. He felt the power to manifest, and where there is the power to do a thing, there is happiness in doing it.
It is as if someone had made a bazaar and then one came to him and said, “There is no shade in my shop,” and another said, “I have made a contract, and they have not given me the whole of my contract. They have given me only part.” And another said, “The thieves have come in the night, and have taken everything.” And another said, “My husband quarrels with me.” And another said, “My wife is very bad. This is the wife you have given me.” And the man had become so wrapped up in all this that he did not know what to do, and he began to think, “What am I? What have I been? What shall I be? I am not this bazaar that I have made.”
This is what cannot be spoken before the uninitiated because it goes against the religions. He himself became so involved in this existence that He forgets what He is.
When man seeks to clear himself from all these vibrations that he has gathered around him, this is Sufism, this is initiation. Then he places himself in the other swing. This is rebirth. Then he is a Brahman, who knows Brahma. And also “Brahman durj.” Durj means reborn. Christ also said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” Then he passes from this self to that Self.